Alice, The Enigma - A Biography of Queen Victoria's Daughter Read online

  “It meant summer holidays, it meant the sea and the seashore, it meant wonderful shells to be found when the tide was low – shells of every colour and shape. It meant glorious bathing when the tide was high, and drives in the big ‘wagonette,’ as we called our brake, through the sweet-smelling woods, past hedges full of honeysuckle…It also meant the beautiful terraces in front of Osborne House where the big magnolias grew against the walls, those giant magnolias which had a lemon-like fragrance and in which you could bury your whole face…There was also jasmine on those terraces, and jasmine has always filled me with a sort of ecstasy.”[23]

  A particularly enchanting feature of Osborne was the Swiss Cottage, imported in pieces from Germany by Prince Albert in 1853. Hidden in the grounds of the main house, the little Alpine villa was intended not only as a playhouse but also as a place where the children could develop independence by choosing their own occupations and learning the practical skills of cooking and gardening. In an age of revolutions, when monarchies could be ousted overnight, Prince Albert had the foresight to prepare his children to adapt to whatever circumstances they might face in the future. Equipped with child-sized ovens and utensils, the kitchen became a workroom in which Vicky and Alice pickled fruits, prepared the vegetables which they had grown in their own little gardens, and made meals to be distributed to the tenants and the poor, or, on special occasions, to be served to their parents and other guests. Here, too, they could sew and paint, creating gifts for one another and for members of the household, while their brothers practised stone masonry and woodwork in their carpenters’ shop.

  Alongside the Swiss Cottage, the Victoria Fort and Albert Barracks were built by Alice’s boisterous brothers under their father’s supervision, and provided not only a training ground for their future military careers but also a place in which they could charge around wildly, often accompanied by an extremely energetic Alice whose agility outdid their own. Indoors, the nurseries were filled with dolls, skittles, rattles, picture books, model trains, rocking horses and other toys, including a mechanical life-sized lion, which could swallow a toy soldier.

  Shortly after the completion of Osborne, the Royal Family acquired an even more remote estate: Balmoral Castle on the banks of the River Dee. By the time of four-year old Alice’s first visit to Scotland in 1847, her mother’s love of the Highlands already bordered on obsession. Thanks largely to the writer, Sir Walter Scott, the Queen’s initial visit to Scotland several years earlier had been marked by a great display of Celtic ‘traditions’ – several of which had actually been invented for the occasion. Queen Victoria was enchanted not only by the gathering of the clans hailing her as their chief, but also by the lack of ostentation which seemed so prevalent in London. The place, she remarked was ‘more natural and marked by honesty & simplicity which always distinguishes the inhabitants of mountainous countries’ and, when she was told that the 15th Century Balmoral Castle was for sale, she and Prince Albert were overjoyed.

  “Now I can breathe! Now I am happy!” the Prince exclaimed whenever he was in the countryside, and, if Osborne reminded him of the Bay of Naples, Balmoral reminded him of the mountains of Thuringia.

  Once again, though, it was clear that the house was unsuitable for the royal suite, so Prince Albert set to work on creating a new design. As at Osborne, he used the construction to provide employment for local people, ensuring that their wages were above the typically low rates paid in the Highlands, and putting a great deal of effort into creating comfortable accommodation and amenities for the tenants and labourers. Deeply concerned by the insanitary design of slum dwellings, Prince Albert insisted that there were sufficient windows to provide fresh air; and when a scarlet fever epidemic struck the district, Queen Victoria provided new iron beds for every household. Discovering that the nearest school was inaccessible to many of the local children, the Queen and Prince arranged for other schools to be built, alongside providing a library for the use of their tenants. The outcome of the plans impressed not only the residents and local people but also the numerous philanthropists who came to learn from Prince Albert’s schemes.

  The estate workers quickly grew to respect their employer, and, years after his death, one former labourer recalled the Prince’s ‘kindness of heart and his invariable good humour’.

  “If your work pleased him, he said so, and if it did not please him, he said so, but always with the same kind smile, [and he was] always ready to own if he had made a mistake.”[24]

  In the course of the construction, a fire broke out on the estate, damaging several cottages and huts and threatening the castle itself. Prince Albert joined the workmen in dousing the flames and, later, he and the Queen paid for the damage out of their private funds.

  Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone of the new Balmoral on September 1853 – an occasion which was marked by prayer from Mr Anderson, the minister at Crathie Kirk, followed by great festivities – and three years later the fairy-tale castle was complete.

  The Queen adored her ‘dear paradise in the highlands’ where she adopted an exaggerated ‘Scottish-ness’, covering the floors and walls with tartan and insisting that her sons dressed in kilts during their stay. Balls were no longer the stately affairs of the English aristocracy but rather traditional country dances where the Queen and her children would happily swirl around the room with the ghillies and labourers, far more freely than would have been possible in London. Every Sunday afternoon, the Queen and Prince Albert walked arm-in-arm through the countryside, while their children ran about them, chatting happily to the local people as they passed.

  These beautiful settings were not merely a façade of happy domesticity. Within them, Alice grew up in a close-knit family, spending far more time with her parents than was typical for royal children, and learning from their example of concern for their tenants and the local poor. Every morning when the Queen was in residence, a group of five women arrived at Balmoral to have their baskets filled with bread, meats and other foods from the royal kitchens, so that within one week thirty-five families had been fed. The sick, too benefited from their royal neighbours. The Queen had employed a nurse for her staff but, more often than not, she was sent to anyone in the region, requiring attention.

  Alice learned, too, the importance of being accessible to the people as she often accompanied her mother to visit the widowed or bereaved. Many times, on hearing sad news of one family or another, the Queen personally intervened: a widow had a leaking roof, and the Queen arranged for it to be re-thatched; an elderly couple had been evicted by their landlord, and, seeing them standing helplessly at the side of the road, the Queen provided them with a new cottage; a mother had lost a son, and Alice went with the Queen to offer what comfort she could. On one afternoon alone, Alice, Vicky and the Queen’s friend and lady-of-the-bedchamber, Jane Churchill, went for a walk and, according to the Queen:

  “…stopped at the shop and made some purchases for poor people and others;…walked up the hill to [the home of Mrs Farquhason and she walked around with us to some of the cottages…Before we went into any, we met an old woman who…was very poor and eighty-six years old…I gave her a warm petticoat…I went into a small cabin of old Kitty Kear’s…she sat down and spun; I gave her also a warm petticoat…We went into three other cottages and…to see old Mrs Grant…to whom I gave a dress and handkerchief.”[25]

  Much as Alice enjoyed these encounters with ‘ordinary’ people, she took even greater pleasure in the family events celebrated within her own home. Christmas at Windsor was particularly magical, thanks largely to the influence of Prince Albert who introduced many German traditions to Britain, including decorating the tree, which was suspended from the ceiling and decked with coloured candles and artificial snow. Gifts were laid out on separate tables for the household and members of the family, and, following the religious service, a large and often noisy family dinner was held.

  On birthdays and anniversaries, the children entertained the guests with masques
or tableaux, which they prepared and performed with gusto. On one occasion, according to the visiting Baroness Bunsen, they produced a representation of the Four Seasons:

  “…First appeared Princess Alice as the Spring, scattering flowers, and reciting verses, which were taken from Thomson’s Seasons; she moved gracefully and spoke in a distinct and pleasing manner with excellent modulation, and a tone of voice sweet and penetrating like that of the Queen.”[26]

  On another occasion, the subject was Little Red Riding Hood where, again, Alice was called upon to recite verses from memory.

  It was common practice for members of the Royal Family not only to receive but also to give gifts on their birthdays. When the family was staying at Balmoral on the Queen’s birthday, May 24th, a carriage packed with presents was sent around the local villages, and every woman within a five mile radius was given a new dress, a pound of tea and two pounds of sugar.

  The children’s birthdays were also celebrated with parties and dances, and were such happy occasions that Alice’s governess Miss Hildyard commented that:

  “The whole family indeed appear to advantage on birthdays…no tradesman or country squire can keep one with such hearty affection and enjoyment.”[27]

  As at Christmas, tables were set out filled with gifts from the household and members of the extended family, the most interesting, perhaps, being a pet lamb, which Alice received on her fifth birthday, to the consternation of Lady Lyttelton:

  “One present I think we all wish to live farther off: a live lamb, all over pink ribbons and bells. He is already the greatest pet, as one may suppose. Princess Alice’s pet lamb is the cause of many tears. He will not take to his mistress but runs away lustily, and will soon butt at her, though she is most coaxy, and said to him in her sweetest tones, after kissing his nose often: ‘Milly, dear Milly! Do you like me?’”[28]

  An even greater surprise awaited her the following year when, just six months before his death from scarlet fever, the composer, Johann Strauss I, composed the ‘Alice Polka’ in her honour. The merry dance was performed for the first time at Buckingham Palace five days later.

  Animals were an integral part of Alice’s childhood. All the Queen’s homes were filled with beloved pets who were as much a part of the family as the royal children. Hardly a portrait was painted without one dog or another being depicted in an affectionate pose; and Queen Victoria, a staunch opponent of vivisection, not only donated large sums to animal charities but was also the first royal patron of the R.S.P.C.A. Even on the day of her coronation, the Queen had returned home to bathe her King Charles spaniel, Dash; and when Prince Albert arrived in England, he was accompanied by his faithful black greyhound, Eos, whose death caused him immense grief and whose bronze statue still stands at Osborne. Prince Albert also had a fondness of birds and insisted that none of the nests in the gardens were ever disturbed. The children were encouraged to care for any wounded creatures that they came across, and an injured sparrow was a particular favourite. Prince Albert was also keen to prosper the farm at Windsor Castle, where various rare breeds of cattle and sheep were housed. Beyond the palaces, the children were taken to the Zoological Gardens in Regents Park, where Alice was especially delighted an Indian tigress. Years later, Alice would foster in her own children the same love of and concern for the welfare of animals.

  From the Scottish Highlands to the heart of London; from the Isle of Wight to the towers of Windsor, Alice’s childhood was filled with such varied and happy experiences that, years later, she was able to write to her mother with absolute sincerity:

  “What a joyous childhood we had and how greatly it was enhanced by dear, sweet Papa and by all your kindness to us.”[29]

  Chapter 3 –

  A Vain Little Thing

  Alice had not remained the baby of the family for long. When she was sixteen months old, a younger brother, Alfred (Affie), was born, to be followed almost two years later by a second sister, Helena (Lenchen). Over the next decade a further four siblings – Arthur, Louise, Leopold and Beatrice – completed the family.

  The shift from being the youngest, and the natural process of finding her place in the domestic hierarchy bridled a little of her early self-confidence but did not dampen her enjoyment of receiving praise and attention.

  ‘A vain little thing’, according to her mother, she was at times over-excitable, and, even from an early age, shocked the Queen by her lack of inhibition. When she was only five-years-old, Lady Lyttelton recorded:

  “Just had to interrupt an incipient coquettish flirtation begun by Princess Alice with Mons. Nestor while he dressed her hair!”[30]

  Although she could be as boisterous as her brothers in their games, Alice also enjoyed the more feminine arts of dressing up in fashionable clothes and fine jewels. As early as her fifth birthday, Lady Lyttelton observed her ‘tripping about, blushing and smiling at all her honours,’ proudly displaying her new lace dress and a new set of pearls; she treasured the gifts of jewellery that she received from her parents on her birthdays; and, to the frustration of her governess, she was delighted when her lessons were interrupted by a visit from the dressmaker.

  For the first few years of her life, Alice’s education was solely under the charge of Lady Lyttelton in the nursery, but soon she was attending lessons with Vicky, and, while could not compete with her elder sister’s aptitude for learning, she ‘read well’, had a ready grasp of languages, and displayed gymnastic, artistic and musical talents – she soon became a particularly competent pianist, who would later accompany the composer, Brahms, and who delighted in listening to performances by Agnes Zimmermann and other acclaimed pianists of the day. Under the supervision of Lady Lyttelton, the unpunctual Mme Rollande was selected to teach French; the frail Mlle Grüner taught German; a dancing master, Joseph Lowe, trained Alice and her sisters in the necessary accomplishments of the ballroom, and also instructed them in callisthenics – the most up-to-date form of exercise for girls in that era. Virtually every other subject was consigned to the care of the much-loved Miss Hildyard, a parson’s daughter, whom the children affectionately named Tilla.

  Lessons began between eight and eight-thirty in the morning and continued until six in the evening, broken throughout the day by frequent physical and outdoor activities – and, as Lady Lyttelton complained, by the arrival of couturiers, painters or visiting theatre troupes and the necessary rehearsals for the family tableaux. Frequently, the Queen or Prince Albert sat in on a lesson to monitor the children’s progress, and in the event that one of their tutors was absent, the Queen was happy to take over the class herself. Extra-curricular activities were a vital aspect of the children’s education. Alongside visits to the Botanical and Zoological Gardens, Miss Hildyard occasionally took her charges to lectures from well-known scientists and academics.

  Apart from dancing, there were several necessary accomplishments required of a princess, the most important of which was the ability to converse with people of many different backgrounds. Placing chairs in a circle, Alice and her sisters practised moving around the room, addressing imaginary ambassadors, princes or politicians with appropriate questions and comments to initiate a conversation.

  Within the sheltered world of the palaces and mixing with few other children, Alice became particularly close to her elder siblings. Vicky, with whom she shared a room, became her role model and confidante, and though Alice was somewhat overshadowed by her elder and more precocious sister, there was never, according to their friend, Louise of Prussia, “…the least semblance of a disagreement...[Alice’s] individuality was less decided and prominent than that of her sister and she had a special charm of childhood grace.”[31]

  Nor was Alice afraid to correct her sister, when she felt that she was in the wrong. Vicky, who was as prone to bursting into tears as Alice was, was sobbing one evening after being reprimanded, and Miss Hildyard overheard Alice sighing,

  “Oh Vicky! How can you be so naughty?”

  In spite of her so
mewhat self-righteous indignation, Alice was equally capable of misbehaving. One afternoon, she and Vicky noticed a maid black-leading the fire grate and, under the pretext of learning how it was done, asked her to give them the polish. Rather than applying it to the grate, they seized the poor girl and rubbed it all over her face until she fled from the room and, by chance, ran straight into Prince Albert. That evening, members of the household caught sight of the Queen leading her two eldest daughters by the hand to the servants’ quarters to apologise to the unfortunate maid where they were told to apologise to the unfortunate girl before using their pocket money to buy her an entirely new set of clothes – including a hat, gloves and shawl – to compensate for the dress they had stained.

  More often than not, though, it was Bertie, rather than Vicky, who was Alice’s ‘partner in crime’. Together they sneaked off to the Swiss Cottage to smoke cigarettes – a habit which the Queen detested, and one which resulted in a severe reprimand when it was discovered by Miss Hildyard – and, on the frequent occasions when Bertie was banished to his room, ‘Alee’, as he called her, crept up to whisper to him and to pass biscuits beneath the door. Bertie returned the favour when it was Alice’s turn to be reprimanded, and throughout their lives they would champion each other’s cause when either one of them was out of favour with their mother.

  “She is like Bertie in many ways,” the Queen commented – and a comparison to Bertie was never a compliment! – “but has a sweet temper and is industrious and conquers all her difficulties.”[32]

  So devoted was Alice to Bertie that she kept a lock of his hair in a locket around her neck and, whenever he was absent, she missed him so much that she cried herself to sleep.